I believe there is a verse in the Koran that enjoins women to cover themselves. I shan't go into that here: here, we're dealing with kultur, with highfalutin things and high flown words and ideas. Now, since this verse may be safely dated to the seventh century, we are equally safe in assuming that the practice of covering-up had not been widespread before. After all, it took a revelation to establish the practice. Hence, we conclude that the relevant verses were an innovation in Arab culture itself: a repudiation of Arab culture, which included especially the repudiation of female infanticide. The newsreader had no more ambition than to be pious according to her understanding of her holy book – not to be an Arab damsel.
Perhaps what is to be truly deplored is not the Arab influence on Bengali – and Indian – culture, but the complete lack thereof. Over centuries, the Arab sirocco from the Hijaz was unable to blow away the practices of female infanticide and the caste system. Indeed, the former has progressed with modernity into female foeticide assisted by the scientific application of sound waves, a practice unknown in the Muslim world because of an Arab who measured his own culture against higher moral standards, and found it lacking.
We have lapsed into tribalism again, in which Bengalis like Neeman Sobhan revel. The Counselor at the Palestinian Embassy was quite chagrined by the lack of display of sympathy for the Gazans in Bangladesh. Over thirty years, he had observed earlier, there had been no public discussion of the Palestinian tragedy. As the Palestinian Ambassador told me in an interview: "Our biggest enemy is the ummah".
And, he might have added, clothes, cloaks and other covers.
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